+------------------+--------------+--------------+ | | Thickness | Thickness | | NAME OF SHIP. | of Armor | of Armor | | | Amidship. | at Bows. | +------------------+--------------+--------------+ | | Centimetres. | Centimetres. | | Amiral Baudin | 55 | 40 | | Formidable | 55 | 40 | | Hoche | 45 | 40 | | Magenta | 45 | 40 | | Marceau | 45 | 40 | | Caiman | 50 | 35 | | Fulminant | 33 | 25 | | Furieuse | 50 | 32 | | Indomptable | 50 | 37 | | Requin | 50 | 40 | | Terrible | 50 | 37 | +------------------+--------------+--------------+ “A friend writes me: ‘Comparing the _Amiral Duperré_ with the _Amiral Baudin_, _Dévastation_, _Formidable_, and _Foudroyant_, which are ships of about her size, the following peculiarities are observable: The _Duperré_ is about three feet narrower than the other ships mentioned, and has fully fifteen inches less metacentric height. She is also slightly deeper in proportion to her breadth than the other ships.’ “As narrowness, small metacentric height, and excessive depth all tend to reduce stability, it would appear that the Admiralty office has, as I supposed, been careful to select a vessel not unfavorable to their purpose. But however this may be, it is no business of mine to defend the French ships in the details of their stability, nor even to defend them at all; and, as a matter of fact, the French Admiralty, although stopping far short of ours, has in my opinion gone much too far in the direction of reducing the armored stability at considerable angles of inclination. But their falling into one error is no justification for our falling into a much greater one, and deliberately repeating it in every ship we lay down. In this connection I will only add that the experiments performed at our Admiralty on models must be viewed with great distrust for a reason not yet named. They deal only, so far as I am acquainted with them, with models set oscillating or rolling by waves or otherwise. But the danger thus dealt with is a secondary one; the primary one is that due to ‘list’ or prolonged inclination to one side. What sort of protection against the danger of capsizing from this cause can be possessed by a ship the entire armor on each side of which becomes immersed even in smooth water when the ship is inclined a couple of degrees only, and which then has no side left to immerse, save such as single shells can blow into holes ten by four feet?